NAPLAN or the National Assessment Program- literacy and numeracy tests years 3, 5, 7 and 9 on an annual basis in the areas of mathematics and English skills. All Australian schools participate and the results are used to measure the current standard of each year and provide insight into each child's level of ability.  As an English specialist tutor, I tend to focus more on the literacy side of the assessment, which comes in the form of three main tests. These are language conventions (50 questions testing spelling and grammar), the reading test (seven articles are read and approximately 50 questions are for the entirety of the texts) and finally the writing test, which is usually a narrative task. Taking place around March, the general approach is not to 'prepare' as such or to study for the assessments like a normal exam but rather, to simply let the tests interpret the current effectiveness of the Australian curriculum on students across the board. While I generally take no specific stance regarding this for years 3, 5 and 7, I do believe that preparation for year 9 students is quite important. Why? Essentially, because if students results fall under a certain line (essentially a cut off score which used to be named band 8) there are repercussions in the form of OLNA (Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment). For Western Australian students, you cannot pass WACE and receive your high school graduation or move onto studying ATAR until you have met the national standard for literacy and numeracy. Having failed to do so in year 9 NAPLAN, OLNA is the opportunity to meet this standard. Held twice a year in March and September, students are provided six opportunities to meet this standard using OLNA. I want to note, that students only need to sit the test for the areas of their NAPLAN where they failed to meet the standard. So, if they failed the writing section, they will sit writing. If they failed reading or maths, that is the part they sit for OLNA. It is not all that common for students to fail all three parts and have to resit them- although of course it can occur. The ultimate problem I have seen with this approach is that quite young students aged 14 or 15 end up incredibly stressed over OLNA and are preparing for it while continuing on with their normal studies and assessments. They are acutely aware that it will all be pointless until they pass their OLNA test and cannot progress into ATAR subjects until they have. The pointed pressure and high stakes of this create a lot of undue stress on these young students. If one has already failed this area of NAPLAN, their confidence is somewhat eroded from the outset. Clearly, this is not really their strong suit and now they must perform it under much tougher conditions. However, perhaps the student was just having an off day when they sat their narrative or reading test. Or, most likely, they were unaware of the consequences of not meeting the national standard when they sat NAPLAN. This is where I do believe that preparation is important for year 9 students. If they walk into NAPLAN unaware and uninformed of the importance of performing a high standard (at least reasonable) then they are much less likely to take it seriously. All of their prior NAPLAN scores and tests have essentially been unimportant and have not yielded any real consequences regardless of how they performed. Thus, how are they to know this year is different unless they are expressly informed. While there is no need to pressure them into high performance (after all this is not GATE), all year 9 students must at least be told what the outcome could be if they do not meet the expected standard for literacy and numeracy as determined by NAPLAN. If they choose to prepare by practising narrative writing, reviewing maths or their spelling or grammatical comprehension that is their choice. At the very least, they will probably try harder and take it more seriously if they have an awareness of the stakes at play when they sit their year 9 NAPLAN.  As they will be dealing with the fallout- in some cases I have seen- for anywhere up to two years with it impacting their academic choices and trajectory quite severely at times, the students deserve to be in possession of the facts. They deserve the chance to review, sharpen and practise their skills before sitting assessments that will determine their educational opportunities and expectations possibly for the duration of high school, certainly for the next 6-12 months at a minimum. Each year, I tutor many year 9 students in preparation for NAPLAN and while I hear certain background noises of 'you're not supposed to study for NAPLAN' my feeling is when you consider what is at stake for the students in year 9, it seems quite sensible to prepare. If a student wants to spend more time understanding the rules of grammar, spelling, text structures, composing skills and comprehension to ensure they align with the national expectation surrounding education, I will never turn them away. Any time our kids want to learn more or clarify the information they have been learning, we must encourage and support their development as academics. So, with NAPLAN just around the corner, if you are in years 3,5, or 7 you do not need to stress too much. If you want to review what you have been learning, there is no harm in that but certainly no real consequences surrounding your results. However, if you are now in year 9, I would ask for some support from a parent or friend group to do some practise tests. Of course, The Tutoring Experience is always here if anyone needs support.

Thanks so much everyone.

Please feel free to drop me a line or let me know if there is a certain topic you would like discussed.

Happy term one.

Jem

Director of Education - The Tutoring Experience